Watch the following video, where a tourist on a boat captured stunning footage o
ID: 1773943 • Letter: W
Question
Watch the following video, where a tourist on a boat captured stunning footage of the sudden and violent explosion of the Mount Tavurvur volcano (in Papua, New Guinea) on 29 August 2014: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BUREX8aFbMs This is a rare instance where you can actually see the shock wave propagating away from the volcano just after the explosion (look for the dust clouds on the ground and the vapor in the air). For the purposes of this problem, you can think of the shock wave as an ordinary (sudden, brief) sound wave. Use the timing information in the video to estimate the distance between the volcano and the boat. Give your answer in both km and mi.
Explanation / Answer
The volcano exploded at :12 s and the boat experienced the shock at :25 s .
Therefore, the wave took (25-12) s = 13 s to reach the boat.
The shock wave is assumed to be a sound wave.
The speed of sound in air is 343 m/s.
Therefore, in 13 s, it would travel = 343 x 13 m = 4459 m = 4.459 km = 2.77 miles
Therefore, the boat is at a distance of 4.459 km and 2.77 miles.
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